Discreet Diner | Water Lily
Philadelphia Inquirer
Published: 10/28/2007
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The term French Asian bistro piques the interest of the
Discreet Diner because it combines my two favorite cuisines.
I had not dined in Collingswood lately,
so a friend and I headed over to Haddon Avenue to experience Water
Lily.
The long dining room has banquette booths on one side and square,
wooden tables spaced nicely throughout the rest of the room. The decor is
decidedly Asian and paprika is the dominant color.
For starters, we selected the shrimp dumpling soup ($6) and the Fuji apple gyoza ($6). The soup was a clear broth with dumplings
and jumbo shrimp. It had good shrimp flavor and my friend savored it.
The gyoza were six Japanese pan-fried
dumplings filled with pork and apple ground together and served with a
ginger-infused soy sauce. They were prettily presented and they tasted as
good as they looked.
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Water Lily's shrimp Pad Thai ($10 lunch, $16 dinner): thick rice
noodles, with shrimp, tofu, ginger, shallots, bean sprouts and green
onion, in a tamarind sauce, topped with crushed peanuts
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Our
entrees came in a timely fashion. My friend opted for the shrimp Pad Thai
($10 lunch, $16 dinner). It was a plate of thick rice noodles, with shrimp,
tofu, ginger, shallots, bean sprouts and green onion in a kicky tamarind
sauce and topped with crushed peanuts. Pad Thai can be heavy, but this
offering was light and the ingredients fresh.
I
ordered the jumbo lump crabcake ($12 and $24). It
was encrusted in macadamia nuts and served with a creamy lime dressing. I
usually like my crabcakes straight Maryland-style,
but I do have an open mind. This variety was wonderful. The nuts added nice
crunch and the crabmeat was good, sweet lumps. The dressing added a little
kick, a welcome change from tartar sauce. The crabcake,
about three inches in diameter, was served with a ball of rice and steamed
broccoli. I poured a little of the special soy on the rice, and it was
delicious.
Are
you getting the idea that we enjoyed our meal?
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Well, the proof is in the pudding, the saying goes. So we moved
on to dessert.
Oh, the choices. My friend selected the chocolate raspberry
sorbet ($6), a ball of hard dark chocolate with raspberry-flavored
stripes and filled with chocolate ice cream and raspberry sorbet. It was
pretty on the plate, decorated with a raspberry heart and chocolate
squiggles, and pleasing on the palate. A pleasant end to a lovely meal.
We also tried the mango mousse pie ($6), a light and airy
offering of mango mousse. If you like mango, you'll love this creamy
confection.
I ordered crème brûlée ($6), the
favorite dessert of this Discreet Diner. Regular readers will know that
not every establishment can prepare this properly, and that the Discreet
Diner has had some bad experiences. But the bad outweighs the good. And
this one was a winner. The crème had good vanilla flavor and wasn't too
sweet. The burnt top offered the right resistance as I broke through.
Very well done, indeed. I relished every mouthful.
We finished our meals with cups of good, strong coffee. And
smiles.
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